Milton dog lover’s journey reaches Westminster

Sheila Jweid-Webber has a living room wall and a basement filled with dog show ribbons, but on Saturday she’ll be making her first trip to the big Westminster Kennel Club show in New York City.

She and her 5-year-old purebred English springer spaniel, Dragon, will be competing in the second annual master agility championship at Pier 94, part of the lead-up to the annual All-Breed Dog Show.

Dragon’s father, Merlin, was also a master agility champion. Dragon qualified for Westminster when he achieved the master agility champion ranking in January 2014.

“Westminster is a big, prestigious show,” Jweid-Webber said.

In all, more than 3,000 dogs compete during the Westminster show.

In agility competitions, dogs leap hurdles, climb walls, dodge poles and dash through and around other obstacles in a timed trial.

A master champion has won on two different kinds of agility courses.

You might think such a champion would be high-maintenance, but Dragon’s diet is Purina Pro-Plan, with only a supplement for his joints. He’s an affectionate and excitable house dog, barking when a visitor knocks and jumping up in greeting.

“He just hangs around, a couch potato who likes to play in the snow,” said Jweid-Webber, a computer design technician in the Clifton Park office of Ryan Biggs Clark Davis, an engineering firm.

He’s really just coming into his prime, too, since agility dogs can compete until they’re 9 or 10 years old.

Jweid-Webber, 58, grew up in Scotia in a family that had dogs. She began obedience training with dogs in 1982, and took up agility training in 1993, after being exposed to the sport, which is better-known in Great Britain but is growing in popularity in this country.

Dragon’s grandmother was Jweid-Webber’s first agility dog, and his father, Merlin, became her first master agility champion.

Jweid-Webber trains Dragon at High Goal Farm in Greenwich and Jazz Agility in Greenfield Center. Dragon has also competed many times in shows around the Northeast.

Jweid-Webber, who lives off Rowland Street in Milton, has been married for 30 years and has two grown daughters. She is also a two-time breast cancer survivor. Working with her dogs over the years has been part of her emotional therapy.

“You live one day at a time, and my dogs got me through my breast cancer journey,” she said. Her most recent diagnosis and treatment was last year.

The preliminary agility competition will be Saturday, with the top three finishers and seven other dogs selected for the final competition.

The finals of the agility trials will be televised nationally on Fox Sports 1 from noon to 2 p.m. Sunday.

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